You’re an Expat’? Share Your Story!

Currently living in

SINGAPORE

Who am I?

Hi there! You can call me Lilly.

I’m a 25-year-old girl, originally from France, in love with traveling, discovering other cultures, learning languages, photography, film editing, obviously blogging and also all things related to Japan and japanese culture.

In 2018, I graduated as a lawyer in France but I currently live and work as a legal counsel in Singapore.

Beside my blog, I own a YouTube channel, 2 Instagram feeds, and I am quite active on Twitter :)

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Tag: LA

Yes this title is an attempt to make a pun with the title of Sofia Coppola’s masterful movie ‘Lost in Translation‘, which you would all have watched, I am sure.

So we left Las Vegas with a somewhat sore feeling. After being forced to get a cab from the hotel to go to McCarran International Airport, when no other option was left to us, and waiting for several hours at the airport (where we felt more at ease than anywhere else in Vegas at that point), we eventually took off and escaped from the Nevada desert, happy as ever to leave the sounds of the slot machines behind us.

It was Monday the 23rd of July, and on that day I set foot in Los Angeles for the first time in my life.

Those Weird Hours In Between

We had almost 24 hours until our next plane, which would carry us in more than 10 hours, to Japan.

Things went smoothly, so we didn’t have to think about it. From the airport, we took the free shuttle to our hotel (what a change after Las Vegas!), checked in the huuuuge beautiful room we booked and we proceeded to chill out.

We didn’t even go out of the hotel to explore Los Angeles a bit, but honestly we weren’t in the mood to do so. Things are a little blurry but from what I can remember, we went to the hotel restaurant and ate very good food, and then I watched a movie my father had told me about on the flight that day, which I had wanted to see ever since it was released in 2004: ‘Flight Plan‘ with Jodie Foster, a thriller set on a plane which was interestingly written, but scared me about planes when I wasn’t even scared…

Preparing Yourself For A Whole Other World And An Inevitable Culture Shock

All I could think about was counting the hours separating me from leaving the US and FINALLY landing to Japan, and seeing it for myself, after so many years of wondering how it would be like.

For the record, I have been learning Japanese for almost 2 years now, and obviously learning about the culture as well, from many different sources (YouTube, books, TV shows, Netflix, documentaries, social media and so on). So I already knew a lot about Japan. In fact, in some ways even more than I knew about the US… That’s something I’ve already talked about, but what I knew from the US before our trip all came from 70s to 90s TV shows and movies. Nothing current.

I had the same level of excitement for Japan that I got for New York City, which is saying something because I had wanted to go to New York since before I could even have memories… I can’t even describe how happy I was.

That night I couldn’t sleep very well either, which was expected…

I knew well enough how much of a disorientation and culture shock we would feel when arriving in Japan, and what’s more, in Tokyo. I tried to explain it as much as I could to my father. I remember I told him about:

the fact that the weather there was extremely hot and humid (because it was summer), which neither of us had ever felt before;

the fact that nothing was his size there (my father’s really tall), especially in Tokyo and especially after staying in the US for 2 weeks, where everything is too big;

the fact that people smoke in restaurants, but aren’t allowed to smoke in streets except in very specific areas;

the fact that there is A LOT MORE PEOPLE everywhere, especially in Tokyo;

and of course the simple fact that we were going to leave one continent for another, and not any one of the continents: we were going to leave the America for Asia! Which would have been okay if either of us had ever been to Asia before, but we hadn’t. A huge culture shock was inevitable.

He listened alright. And as I talked about it, I tried my best to really think about it. But in the end, neither of us was truly prepared for what was coming.

Ever wondered where Sofia Coppola got her title from for her famous movie? Well I’ll just leave that quote here for you to think about…

“Poetry is what is lost in translation. It is also what is lost in interpretation.”

As this blog is intended to be all about travelling and expatriation, what better first article than one teasing you (briefly) where I went this summer?!

As it happens, my father and I decided to take a one-month trip, all around the world, in places neither of us had been before!

For my part, I had only been to some European countries, mainly Ireland, England, Italy, Spain, and the Netherlands.

Can you guess what I felt when we finally decided we were going to actually do this huge trip around the world?! Some of the cities I had always dreamt to see, all in one go, this was a true dream come true!

And it didn’t disappoint me!

2 continents, 7 of the biggest cities in the world, 1 month of travelling

From Paris, we started our mega-trip by setting off for New York City, from which we then went to the following places:

San Francisco, US

Las Vegas, US

Los Angeles, US

Tokyo, Japan

Kyoto, Japan

Singapore, Singapore

A total of 3 months of preparation beforehand, 29 hours spent on planes, 24 hours spent in airports around the globe, around 100 kilometers of exploration on foot, more than 10 hotels tried out, dozens of venues explored, more than 50 restaurants experimented, and 5 travel guides devoured from cover to cover.

The experience I got from this trip feels absolutely incredible and I find it unbearable to keep it to myself.

My ‘Honest Logbook’ Series: A Disclaimer

During this trip, I’ve written a lot about my thoughts, the tips and tricks I learned along the way, but also about my surprises and disappointments; it is only right I share them all, along with reflection about what I’ve witnessed in the countries I went.

In the future I intend to travel even more, and expatriate myself (again – but this shall be related in a future article), therefore gathering and sharing even more thoughts and knowledge about other countries and places.

Of course I wouln’t be able to do that without giving an opinion on those different matters. I would never intend this opinion to offend anyone, therefore I ask you not to forget that this opinion is my own, and that liberty of expression should remain a fundamental right. I should hope every single one of my readers is informed of this fact, and cannot be shocked by anything I say here.

In any case, feel free to comment on what I say, inform me on subjects I may have overlooked and spread positivity for better understanding. I will for sure answer each and every one of you, and even share dialogs I may have on this platform if I think they could benefit us all!